Comment from an evangelical presbyterian perspective and an orthodox confessionally reformed outlook.

Friday, 31 January 2014

Helps for Worship

One of the chief concerns for Reformed churches in our age is
the maintenance, or indeed the reintroduction, of biblical worship. Do our people understand our worship and why
we do what we do?

The OPC has produced an excellent simple introduction to the
elements of worship. Written by William Shisko it covers in 39 pages and 33
short articles everything we do in worship and provides biblical underpinning
for our practices.

Not only is it available at a printed booklet, ($1.50), but it
can be downloaded in a printer friendly version from the OPC website, both as
PDF and by coping and pasting from the webpage as a Word document.

Each chapter fills the inside of a fold-over A4 bulletin. In
our congregation we have been running it as a series in the inside of our
weekly bulletin. As a Free Church of
Scotland congregation we have done some slight editing to reflect our own
particular practices. I also edited the
discussion questions, more by addition than deletion.

I append an example of a chapter I formatted and edited for
the bulletin. If anyone is interested I
could make the individual formatted for Scottish use version available.

Here is an example from our bulletin. As formatted if fits in
an A4 landscape page:

HELPS FOR
WORSHIP

13: RESPONSIVE READINGS

"...
Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." (Eph.
5:19)

Some students of liturgics (that is, the study of the proper
manner of worship) question whether responsive readings are to be used in
worship. What is the biblical basis for them? What is their purpose?

Our pattern is to use responsive (or unison) readings (usually
from the book of Psalms) as we prepare ourselves for the prayer of confession
of sin, which follows. The biblical basis for this practice is that the
Scriptures themselves tell us that the congregation should use appropriate
words in its ministry to one another (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). We usually think
of our congregational singing in this regard, but the Scriptures command us to
"speak" to one another as well as to sing to one another and to the
Lord.

In the Old Testament, there is an example of this kind of
congregational speaking in Deuteronomy 27. The tribes of Israel were divided
between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. The blessings and the curses of the
covenant were read aloud, and the people responded with their "Amen!"
In doing so, they committed themselves to the very things God had told them in
his covenant word. We do something similar as we take God's words on our lips
and recommit ourselves to them in corporate worship.

In a real sense, this time of congregational speaking is an
extension of our corporate confession of faith. Because the Psalms have their ultimate
fulfilment in the person and work of Christ (Luke 24:44), we are continuing our
confession of him. We are also reminding one another of the multifaceted truths
in a believer's experience (the Psalms are given, in part, for that purpose).
Those very reminders should make us desire to come before God in repentance and
confession.

What a privilege it is to take the Word of God on our own lips
as we worship the God who is to be worshiped according to that Word!

For Reflection

How
does the responsive reading when used reflect your own experience, and how
does it call you to confess your sins?

“Blessed be theLord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise theLord!” Do we heartily respond with the Amen at
close of prayers and worship?

About Me

With degrees in both philosophy and theology, I have lived and worked in the UK, West Africa (working in theological education) and the USA. As a Teaching Elder I served for 19 years in the Church of Scotland and 4 years in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (USA). I am a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and a member in St Andrews Free Church, Fife.

I am married to my wonderful wife Aileen, who has supported and moulded me over 40 years of marriage - an ongoing project that may yet pay dividends, although it requires great patience on her part.